El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 108, Los Angeles Clippers 92

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Los Angeles Clippers 92 FinalRecap | Box Score 108 San Antonio Spurs

Tim Duncan, C 35 MIN | 12-20 FG | 2-2 FT | 10 REB | 2 AST | 26 PTS | +26Vintage minutes, vintage performance.
Kawhi Leonard, SF 29 MIN | 5-8 FG | 3-4 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 16 PTS | +9My only complaint is that Kawhi Leonard didn’t play more minutes. Best part of his performance: a couple mean box outs.
Boris Diaw, PF 27 MIN | 3-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 12 REB | 5 AST | 7 PTS | +24Diaw shot poorly, but his 12 boards were a critical component of this victory.
Tony Parker, PG 38 MIN | 1-9 FG | 5-5 FT | 2 REB | 11 AST | 7 PTS | +26The Spurs’ biggest adjustment in Game 2 is finding a way to shake LA’s coverage of Parker. Parker struggled from the field—largely due to the Clippers’ D—but still found ways to get his teammates buckets.
Daniel Green, G 29 MIN | 6-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 15 PTS | +14Danny Green shoots the ball when he’s open. It’s a skill. It’s a skill that hurt the Clippers. It’s a skill that will continue to hurt the Clippers.
Stephen Jackson, SG 20 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 3 AST | 3 PTS | -6Not enough productivity from Jack tonight.
Matt Bonner, PF 8 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -7A forgettable game from Bonner, other than the fact that he may have hurt his hand in the first half.
Manu Ginobili, SG 27 MIN | 6-13 FG | 7-8 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 22 PTS | +12Ginobili is forcing everything, and I mean that in a good way. He still seems like he’s in a funk, but it’s hard to worry about 22 point in 27 minute funks.
Gary Neal, PG 12 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 5 PTS | -8Neal is troubled by pressure. His inability to advance the ball against an aggressive press/trap could cost him minutes this series.
Tiago Splitter, C 12 MIN | 2-2 FG | 0-2 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 4 PTS | -11Splitter needs to do more, and whatever that is, it can’t include trying to beat guards off the dribble.
DeJuan Blair, F 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | +1GT.
James Anderson, SG 1 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 3 PTS | -1GT.
Patrick Mills, PG 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 0 PTS | +1GT.

Three Things We Saw

    1. The Spurs shot 81% in the paint, 52% from three, and 33% from midrange. Clips shot 54%, 47%, 48% from those ranges respectively. More importantly? The Spurs took 51 shots from three/paint to 15 midrange shots (a full eight of which were Duncan). The Clips took 48 from three/paint, but 27 shots from the midrange. Super efficient distribution from the Spurs — dictated where their offense was coming from. Very good work. Of the Clips’ midrange shots… three from Kenyon Martin, five from Blake Griffin. Don’t know about you, but I’d sure as hell take that any day of the week.

 

    1. Duncan had 26-10-2-2-2. He’s 36. No advanced stats needed. That’s incredible. And the Spurs are now 11-0 when the Big Three combine for 50+ points this year. Yes, 50+ among three players. That’s all it takes for the Spurs right now.

 

  1. Nice statistical quirk. Tonight, the Spurs’ 7th leading scorer (Gary Neal) had 5 points. Seventh. Earlier tonight, the Miami Heat’s 3rd leading scorer (Mario Chalmers) had 5 points. That’s depth.
  • Greyberger

    The offense looked pretty smooth after early hiccups. The only real problem was the turnovers. Tony shot poorly but had 11 assists and was +26. When you’re +26 the box score stats are moot.

    Caron Butler outperformed what we expected and what we can expect going forward. He got to 6-13 shooting difficult shots. He was 21-60 in the playoffs before tonight.

    Hope to see Matt Bonner back because the offense can get even better when he’s involved. Good win that proves the 6 minute burst of hell can happen at any time.

  • senorglory

    c’mon, man. “A”s for everyone. in particular, 12 boards is evidence of great effort by Diaw.

    i’m ecstatic. Spurs in 4. Ready for the WCF.

  • junierizzle

    If they have to cut down the turnovers. That’s the only way Clips can score. Still won by double digits and THEY LOOKED RUSTY, wow. I think TP will be fine. He can hit the shot they are giving him.

  • NYC

    Life is good.

  • Stijl

    Old man syndrome. Fell asleep at half time. Just woke up to find out who won.

    I must say…the second half must have been a lot better than the first half.

    What made the difference between the two halves for the Spurs to pull out a 16 point victory?

  • inmanuwetrust

    During the first quarter, the Spurs looked a LITTLE rusty. Lazy passes, turned the ball over a lot, and didn’t go strong to the basket when they had easy opportunities. Hope the Spurs can sweep although I might get worried about Timmy for game 4 which is on the 2nd night of a back to back in LA if he continues to play 35 minutes a night. Other then that, solid victory! They’ll probably figure out a solution for the speedy Eric Bledsoe.

  • http://aol ACE

    SAN ANTONIO SPURS VS INDIANA PACERS TO THE NBA FINALS…………..!!!!

  • http://www.awakeat2oclock.com John Dini

    There was rust. Defensive rotations seemed slow, too many open jumpers for the Clips.Too many Spurs were a second slow under the rim. Having 9 shots blocked was due far less to great D from the Clippers than it was to hesitation and iffy ball handling by the Spurs. A little ridiculous the way Fratello acts like a Griffin dunk is the single most important moment of the game. I’m not complaining. A 16 point win on a marginal night is a great indicator of how this series should go.

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  • Timetodienow1234

    Once the Spurs shook off the rust, the Clips couldn’t hang with them. I don’t like seeing Duncan playing that many minutes. We don’t need him out there 35 minutes to put down the Clips. Let him get 26-28 minutes a night and give Blair some Playing Time. We need to prepare in case Diaw(playing way better than I ever expected) or Splitter gets hurt. And did anyone see Ginobli not getting any calls? I think this is a case of David Stern told his refs not to call anything for known flopper not from LA.

  • CoyoteMan

    Tim Duncan - “a highlight film for coaches.”. Pop captured it perfectly. If there were ever a year showcasing hero-ball vs. team basketball, this has to be it. Lebron, Wade, Paul, Griffin et al. are great players, but how interesting is isolation and simple heroic play, really? Give me Timmy’s double double in a killer-effective win vs. Lebron’s awesome performance in a lose loss any day.

  • Kev

    Great second-half adjustment by Coach Pop. That’s all it took. There’s something to be said about motivating a team that had 8 days off, all locked up, heading into halftime. Just a spectacular 3rd quarter, and kudos for the toughness shown on the boards with Diaw and Duncan.

  • http://passthemsticks.com Batmanu

    I’ve been saying this to anyone who will listen: The Clippers half court offense is terrible. They either make CP3 work magic or hope Blake Griffin can. Griffin’s offense is very one dimensional and outside of transition, he can’t hurt us.

    This series will be a short one. I’m thinking gentleman’s sweep.

  • Kev

    @Batmanu -

    You aren’t the only person whose observation of the Clippers came to those conclusions. But I will disagree with you about the half-court offense of the Clippers. When Paul is struggling with his shot (he struggled mightily last night), and turning the ball over 5 times, you could consider those aberrations just like you would easily claim “Parker will bounce back from his terrible 1-9 outing”. Everyone expected the Spurs to get this game. We have to see how Game 2 plays out, before claiming a “sweep” of any kind. I believe the law of averages will take place, and Paul will be closer to his 20/10 Thursday night, and Griffin (though hobbled) has a penchant for scoring in the interior against the Spurs (half-court offense). He settled for far too many jumpers last night, and you better believe he won’t do that next game. Its all about adjustments.

  • Vermont Spurs Fan

    Well I guess I overreacted. So far the Clippers just played basketball. I am glad that no one took my advice to arrest the Clippers at the airport. The key is to just overwhelm teams. When they know that you are better they do not play as hard.

    Did you see Reggie Evans kick his own guy in the head??? He really has no idea what he is doing out there. He could hurt anyone. If we can get a good margin in these games early on then the Clippers will not be as dirty.

    Let’s do this in 5 games and not have to go back to L.A. for a game 6.

    15 in a row for the Spurs. It looks like Spurs vs OKC for the NBA Championship since no one from the East can even hang with these two clubs…sure glad that we fooled around and got that Home Court advantage versus every team left in the playoffs!

  • Titletown99030507d

    KL got owned by Butler throwing down 3’s like nobody’s business. Butler and Bledsoe are the reason’s they stayed close for most of the time until yes they ran out of gas and were feeling the hurt. Case in point KL let Butler get off a string of 3’s then Pop took him out and put SJ in to remedy that. Jackson also was soft on the perimeter defense when Butler had his hands on the ball ready to throw up yes another 3. Swishhh. That’s gotta stop. Then Pop put KL back in shortly thereafter. Then everything was honky dory after that.

    Splitter’s grade was fine but he did hang tough in the low post on defense when it mattered. Blake tried to go through him down low and Splitter caused a turnover. Stood his ground a couple of times against the other bigs. This game seemed out sync in regards to what they normally do with screen and rolls, pick and rolls involving Splitter or the Clips scouted that very well.

    Hope the 2nd unit is more crisp in game 2. They haven’t played like that in a very long time. Neal can’t handle the ball that’s a given. I’d rather put “Mills on Wheels” in there if Neal is struggling he’s just as capable of knocking down 3’s but can move the ball better IMO.

  • Daniel T

    Bonner was credited with a block of Griffin, though it was a joint effort from Tiago who likely deserved credit for the block while Bonner wound up with the ball (counted as a defensive rebound). He did not play many minutes due to the Clippers’ small ball lineups, but had 3 defensive rebounds altogether. When he once received a pass in the corner with a Clipper running out on him, he made a quick pass to Jackson who decided against shooting his more open three. So that “forgettable game” earned a D+, whereas the memorable moment that Blair, Anderson and Mills played earned them all an A+?

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com Andrew A. McNeill

    Just curious, wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on the video embedded within the recap. Like? Dislike? Don’t care?

  • Titletown99030507d

    Yeah what’s up with that Varner? A+ for 3 players with literally Zero’s in a minute or are you just being sarcastic? Really stop with the grading we know who did well who didn’t.

  • Titletown99030507d

    @Andrew

    If it’s not available on the Spurs site then yeah pretty cool otherwise why?

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com Andrew A. McNeill

    @Titletown

    So that you don’t have to go to the Spurs site and you can stay on ours.

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  • http://passthemsticks.com Batmanu

    @kev -

    Outside of Chris Paul/Nick Young/Blake Griffin isolations, PnR and running Mo Williams off a few screens, the Clippers offense can be described as unorganized at best. Sure, they hustle and they make some shots off these actions, but that doesn’t make it a good, sustainable offense. Compare our sets to theirs (lol).

    Even if CP3 plays much better, I don’t think Griffin will have much of an impact beyond a few token highlights. Boris Diaw makes a HUGE difference (literally and figuratively) to our frontcourt defense. He has the bulk and the strength to handle anyone Timmy isn’t guarding. Like Griffin.

  • http://passthemsticks.com Batmanu

    @Andrew A. McNeill -

    I can’t view them (blocked at work, which is where I view the site), but as a design choice, I like it.

  • Stijl

    @Andrew

    Love the video embedding. Try to get closer next time so the audio is better. :)

  • kris

    Sorry but Manu deserves a C-. He’s still in a huge funk and I’ve noticed that his minutes are really going down as we get farther in the playoffs. Fortunately we haven’t needed him. I’ll give him a little credit for being more aggressive though. By the way I’m not sure if it’s good to continue to use Manu as the Sixth Man anymore. I know they’re starting to use him less and not rely on him so much because he’s old but one of my concerns lately is that when he comes into the game now it takes him a long time once he gets in to start contributing or doing anything. It’s not like it used to be where he could come in right away and produce right away or bring a lot of energy. Also I’ve noticed that the starters get us a huge lead in the first place which is great but then you bring Manu in to pretty much play really useless minutes and pretty much hope he doesn’t get hurt again in those minutes. Also he seems to not play well with Neal out there. He needs to be out there with Tony now.

  • senorglory

    i for one welcome our new embedded video overlords.

  • http://espn raheem

    these are my SPURS the ones i know and love and i feel a championship this season so lets go POP bring it on home!!!!!!!!!! “GO SPURS GO !!!”

  • http://espn raheem

    Tony Parker looking real good and i must say loving our role players we are the make up of a true team back ups and all!!!!!!